Background on BOTOX

BOTOX is the trade name of “botulinum toxin”, a neurotoxic protein produced by the bacteria Clostridium Botulinum.

In the early 18th century, a physician by the name of Justinuc Kerner first saw the possibility of therapeutic uses of what he called “sausage poison”, since the bacteria producing the toxin tends to grow mainly in meat products that are improperly-handled or ill-prepared. It was Kerner that first coined the name botulism (from the Latin botulus meaning sausage).

In 1897, Emile Pierre Van Ermengem managed to identify the bacterium Clostridium Botulinum as the producer of the botolinum toxin; during an outbreak that followed a funeral ceremony in Ellezelles, a Belgian village.

It was P.Tessner Snipe along with Hermann Sommer that managed to purify the toxin for the first time.
The big discovery came in 1949, when Burgen announced that the mechanism of action related to botulinum toxin was that it was capable of blocking neuromuscular transmission.Then, the journey of therapeutic research related to BOTOX started:

In the 1960s an ophthalmologist by the name of Alan Scott teamed with Edward Schantz to be the first to explore possible therapeutic uses of botulinum toxin.In 1973 Scott began his experiments on monkeys.

In 1980 Scott officially used botulinum toxin type A for the first time in humans to treat strabismus and blepharospasm.
A new breakthrough took place when Pasricha and colleagues demonstrated successful use of botulinum toxin in cases of achalasia.
The good news continued to pour in when Bushara and Park showed it can inhibit sweating. From that day on, more and more applications for BOTOX treatment came into view, the most promising being its cosmetic applications.
Dr. Richard Clark was the first to hypothesize on the possible benefit of botulinum toxin type A; he published his findings in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal in 1989.
Finally, in 1992, a married couple by the names of Drs Carruthers JD and Carruthers JA in Vancouver published the first study regarding the use of botulinum toxin type A.
On April 12th 2002, The FDA approved of the use of botulinum toxin type A for cosmetic use.